1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to a backlight unit, a display apparatus comprising the same, and a control method thereof, and more particularly, to a backlight unit, a display apparatus comprising the same, and a control method thereof to control a light source unit that is divided into a plurality of areas.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, a flat display device, such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), a plasma display panel (PDP) and an organic light emitting diode (OLED), has been developed as an alternative to a CRT.
An LCD comprises an LCD panel that comprises a thin film transistor (TFT) substrate, a color filter substrate, and liquid crystals interposed between both substrates. The LCD panel does not emit light by itself, thus there is disposed a backlight unit in the rear of the TFT substrate to provide light. Transmittance of the light irradiated from the backlight unit is adjusted according to the alignment of the liquid crystals. The LCD panel and the backlight unit are accommodated in a chassis.
The backlight unit is either an edge type backlight unit or a direct type backlight unit according to a position of a light source.
In the edge type backlight unit, a light source is installed on a side of a light guiding plate. The edge type backlight unit is typically used with a small LCD device, such as a monitor for a laptop computer and a monitor for a desktop computer. The edge type backlight unit has various advantages, such as high uniformity of light and a long life. Furthermore, an LCD that uses the edge type backlight unit may be thinner.
The direct type backlight unit has been developed along with the development of a large-screen LCD. In the direct type backlight unit, a plurality of light sources are disposed under the LCD panel and directly emit light to the surface of the LCD panel. The direct type backlight unit uses the available light sources more than the edge type backlight unit. Therefore, the direct type backlight unit obtains a higher brightness; however, the brightness is not uniform.
In a conventional backlight unit where an entire light source is driven by one driving part, the entire light source should be replaced with a new one when the brightness is not uniform. In this case, it costs a lot of money to replace the light source with a new one and the above-mentioned problem repeatedly arises.